Abe, Emily and I arrived in Rome (Italy not Georgia) at around 9:30 am, got to the hotel and had some of the best pastries and cappuccino ever. The trip there was an ordeal in itself. Well, not so much the ride, but the layover. We stopped in New York and had one hour to make our connecting flight. It was obvious that we would starve on the way to Rome, if we didn't get some food in the airport. Abe decided to grab a beer at the airport bar, which almost made us miss our flight. Somehow he was under the impression that the plane wouldn't leave without him. Emily was pissed when people started to board the plane, but he wouldn't come. He eventually got on the plane, but it was not a pleasant start to the trip.

We were all pretty exhausted from the flight, but Abe and I wanted to go walk around and Emily wanted to take a nap. So, Abe and I walked over to the Spanish Steps and sat around for a while.

I love Rome. When Emily, Shannon and I went to Europe last year, this was my favorite city. We decided to come back here just on a whim after the pope died, so we could see the election of the new pope. It took a great deal of convincing to get Abe to quit his job and come, but we managed to pull it off (it helped that he was sick of working there and had already been thinking about leaving).

We left the Spanish and headed up to the Piazza del Popolo, one of my favorite squares in the city. From there we spotted an observation point heigh above the square and the city. In our airplane weary delirium, we decided to climb to the top. I'm glad we did though, the view was amazing, but it wore us out.

Emily woke up from her nap when we got back to the hotel, and we all walked to the Pantheon. We ate a pretty terrible lunch on the way (the only bad meal of the trip). Last time I was here, I didn't spend enough time at the Pantheon, so I was glad to go back. We sat at a cafe across from the ancient church and ate dessert.

Next stop was the Piazza Navona. Always a fun place to hang out and grab a great meal. I bought a painting by a local artist as a souvenir. We stopped at the Trevi Fountain on the way back to the hotel. It is one of the most beautiful sights in the city. I could watch it all day. You think they would build me one in my backyard?

Stupid people... Don't you just love them?

Emily and I have been dealing with these people all week. Well her more than me. One guy came in for an interview for a hard money loan and talked her and my mom's heads off for an hour and a half. He was dirty, smelly and argumentative. He hard-balled them for an hour about their prices. When he left, they ran his credit and confirmed their suspicions - his credit sucked. Em has also been dealing with a stupid borrower all week. He called Monday, wanted to close on Wednesday, and complained about the price (no price break for that short of notice). Then, four hours before he was suppose to close, he wanted to raise the loan amount by $34,000 to convert the single family house to a four-plex. However, he didn't tell the appraiser, so the house was appraised on $30,000 worth of repairs, not $64,000. So, Emily has been going back and forth with him for the last few days trying to get the deal to close. Wednesday, after the supposed closing time, the buyer found out that there was a code enforcement lean against the house because the owner had been fixing the house himself without pulling permits. Emily is going crazy trying to get it all figured out.

Em and I are really excited for the trip. It's just about the only thing we can think about. A couple days ago, I went on Bestbuy.com to find a larger memory stick for my camera. They had the one I wanted on sale for $76, so I called the store to find out if they had it in stock and if the internet price was the same as the in-store price. They said that they had a bunch in stock, but it would be cheaper to buy it over the internet and pick it up in the store. So that's what I did. About 30 minutes after ordering, I got an e-mail saying that my item was pulled from the shelf and available for pickup at the front of the store. When I got there, it was not pulled from the shelf and the manager informed me that the memory stick was out of stock. Naturally, I was pissed. They searched all over the store and in the warehouse and eventually found one. I took it and left. When I got home, I found out that the memory stick didn't work with my camera. Crap. I went back, returned it, and asked for one that would work. They took literally half an hour to tell me that the one I needed was out of stock. Abe told me a similar story of poor customer service at Best Buy and that he had been boycotting the store ever since. So, we went to Circuit City, found the memory stick and were out of there in under five minutes. Lesson learned.

On a more upbeat note, IPhoto rocks. I would have never used it, but my dad just got a new Mac (it took a while to convince him, but Em and I finally did) and tried out the program. As a new Mac user, he needed my help figuring out the program. I played with it for a while on my computer and saw the power of IPhoto for myself. I can't wait to get prints and photo books!

I finally got to upload some photos from when we baby-sat Nugget. We've been soooo busy lately. I've been taking care of most of the Big Picture DVD stuff, while Emily has been handling the hard money loans. Abe has finally quit his dead end Firestone job. Now he's going to go back to school for his MBA and join us in some real estate deals.

I have some exciting news!! Abe, Emily and I are going to Rome in two weeks! Yes, that's right, we're crazy. I don't care what you say. It's going to be amazing!

Ahhh! I've been so busy this week! Monday and Tuesday Emily, Dan, and I drove around looking at dumpy houses. Dan just got his Real Estate license and has only been in nice houses. These crappers were a real shock to him. We saw two in Sanford and one between UCF and downtown. The Sanford ones were in really bad shape and will not make good investments (they were in bad areas). The other one was also in a hard to sell area (behind a trailer park) and the asking price was about what it is worth. Yesterday and today we are working hard to catch up on our DVD work.

Oh and I have really exciting news! A couple months ago I sent out a press release about my Bradotype images and didn't hear back from anyone. Then my dad was sitting in bed reading Studio Photography & Design magazine (a big national magazine for professional photographers) and he read an article about me and my images! He was just as shocked as I was.

Met with the owner of Emily's gym yesterday. She wants us to make a video series of her nutrition classes. The project seems like it will be a lot of fun to shoot. We're probably going to do it like Good Eats (one of my favorite shows) with different locations to illustrate each topic. The meeting went well and we should begin shooting in a few weeks.

Today I shot pictures of my friend Dan Berger for his website www.dantherealtorman.com. They came out pretty well, but the best picture (of him pointing goofily at the camera) came out blurry. Oh well, we have some other good ones. After the photo shoot, Abe, Dan, Emily and I went canoing on the Wekiva River. I love that place and it sucks that I don't get to go more often. On the way to the spring, Emily went with Abe and they spent half the time in the bushes. We got down there, ate hot dogs and hung out for a while before heading back. She went with me on the way back and we stayed away from the bushes and away from the alligators. It was the first alligator she's seen since living here! Too bad it was only a baby.

Ok, so I am either the biggest nerd ever or the smartest person ever. I installed Linux on my I-pod. Here's the story...

I wanted to be able to record audio on my I-pod. So I looked at the commercial audio recorders on the market and realized that the headphone jack must also double as a line in or mic in. The little devices which allow you to record audio didn't do anything to the hardware of the I-pod, so it must already have the capability. I was searching the internet for a way to access that part of the software, when I stumbled across http://www.ipodlinux.org. This site is a complete resource for installing Linux on the I-pod, which will enable me to record audio, play games and do a ton of other stuff. The installation was quick and easy, but the software isn't perfect. I made a test recording using my headphones as a microphone (yes, headphones and microphones are basically the same thing, but each one is better suited to their particular task). The recording came out great (given my headphones arn't an ideal microphone and I was too lazy to reach under my desk for a real microphone). Score! The software doesn't do so well when it came to playing back the recording though. It froze up. Oh well. I can just get the recordings off my I-pod using my computer.

Stupid Flickr won't let me all any new pictures. I haven't updated my blog in the last few days because I can't load the pictures I want to load. Anyway, Em and I went to the Winter Park Art Festival on Saturday. It was fun, lots of good artists and whatnot, but we were both feeling sick so we didn't stay long. Em was sick all weekend with some kind of head and throat illness. I got it just a little bit on Saturday and Sunday, but it really just made me tired. Sunday we finished shooting a Lifetime Tribute Video we had been shooting since last week. Then we braved illness and planted some new stuff in the garden. Emily has been painting clay pots with really neat designs, so she got some plants to put in them. Mostly flowers and cactuses (don't give me crap, I hate the word cacti). I planted some new basil plants cause the old ones died in the freeze, a strawberry plant, and red hot chili peppers.

I have been working on finishing the Lifetime Tribute Video for Emily's grandma. It is exporting now, but it's going to take another 40 hours or so, because the video is over 4 hours long. The LTV we finished shooting on Sunday is going to be just as long.

Yesterday the coolest thing happened. Emily got the mail and noticed a strange letter from the Washington DC government (the city govt, not the big govt) addressed to me. I let her open it and she found a check for $216! I have no idea how they even found my address, or why they would send me the money, but who cares. My car is getting it's 60,000 mile tune up and the cash will help me pay. Whoo Hoo!

Em and I have been babysitting her friend Katie's dog for the week. He is a golden retriever/corgi mix. Very fun and playful, but sometimes too much so when all the dogs get together.

We've also been doing a lot for the Volusia Asset Co - hard money lending - business. And it's really been paying off. Our responsibilities include going to meetings, passing out fliers, calling clients and potential clients and conducting pre-approval meetings. It's pretty fun because most of the people we have met with are a bit nutty in one way or another. The pay is great. We have helped with a few deals and made as much as $2900 in two hours. Last night Em got a call from a new client who wanted to go to auction. She talked to him for a bit, then called my mom to alert her to the deal and find out if the money was available. Today he bought the house and paid our rent for the next two months. All right!

Em and I went to the Winter Park farmer's market yesterday. It was great, but we got there a bit late, so most of the people were closing up. We were able to get some fresh produce and the amazing olive tapenade that I love. We talked to the tea woman for a while and listened to her explain the intricate difference between the different types of tea pots. Em bought me a cast iron tea set for our anniversary. Super cool. Later we met up with Abe and went with my sister to Bubbalou's Bodacious Bar-B-Que. It was pretty good, but the evening held more significance than just eating. While we were there, Diane called me to say that one of our friends (Barry's ex-girlfriend who we had stayed with in NYC) had died of an overdose. Very sad. She was extremely nice and full of life and energy when I knew her.

Today Emily and I had a Lifetime Tribute Video shoot in the morning. It went well despite the fact that the interview subject only spoke Spanish. I got to use the limited Spanish I had learned while at LMHS and understood at least some of what he was talking about. Afterward we at lunch at my parent's house to say bye to Lindsey. This evening we have just been taking it easy at home. Emily bought some clay pots and paint at Michael's, so we have spent the last few hours painting and making Matzo Ball Soup. Good stuff.

Emily got back from Canyon Ranch yesterday. She said she had a great time with my mom and sister and the exercising and the nails and the food and the massages and the girly stuff. I would let her tell you about it, but she doesn't like writing in my blog. Instead you can look at a few pictures she took while there...

I spent the last few days being busy with BP DVD stuff. We were pretty swamped in the beginning of the week, now we're just getting that work done. I just finished making all the dubs. Now Em is labeling everything.

Had a pretty busy day today. First appointment was with a woman who survived the Holocaust; I got her number from the Holocaust Center at the JCC and hoped to record her story. I met her at her new residence - a Winter Park retirement home. She had been reluctant to meet and to tell her story on camera, because she doesn't think her experience is as traumatic as some of the other survivors. I told her about our Lifetime Tribute Videos and asked her some questions about her life. She was very open to talking about it off camera and the story was quite interesting.

She grew up in Germany and her family owned department stores. She remembers the rise of anti-semitism and the protests outside of her family's store and home. Her father fled Germany in the middle of the night to live with relatives in New Orleans. Things continued to get worse in the time before she could join him. It was so bad that she couldn't even go outside to walk her dog - she had to give up the dog instead. Nine months later her and the rest of her family joined him in America. Her grandparents were the only ones who stayed behind and they were killed by the Nazis. After talking to me for a while, she agreed to the video interview.

Just before noon I met with a man who owns a local duplication house. He specializes in large volume DVD dubs and gave me some good information about printing labels for DVDs. He uses a special kind of sticky label that will never peal or fade.

I drove straight right to another duplication company who can transfer film to DVD. The owner was a weird freaking guy named Vito. His company seems solid (they've been in business for 25 years) and I trust that he will do a good job with the film, but I'll try to have as little personal involvement as possible. He was all into Christian Rock. He will not dub anything with a bad word. But that's not what made him so weird - he just had a strange manner about him that I can't describe.

I went to the Winter Park farmer's market around 11:00 am. It was great! I hadn't been there in years, so I didn't really know what to expect. There were about 50 booths set up with people selling mostly plants and flowers, but also vegetables and food. I went to one of the vegetable stands first and got everything I would need to make some soup. After purchasing the vegies, I remembered that we were almost out of coffee. I spotted a man selling coffee so I went over to take a look. He had about 15 types packed in gallon plastic bins at the front of his booth. I told him what type of coffee I like and asked him for a recommendation. He told me that all of the coffee was roasted last night (I had never had coffee that fresh) and chose his favorite. It smelled great. I bought a pound. Next I stopped bye a small booth on the far edge of the market where a woman was selling fresh jam. Mmm, I love jam. I picked up some Strawberry and moved right along. Next stop was a man selling fresh herb plants. The basil in our garden has not been doing well, so decided to replace them with some mint (great for tea!). He sold me two plants for three dollars. On my way out, I spotted a woman giving out samples of olive dip on crackers. I tried some and was amazed as it melted in my mouth (so good!). Needless to say, I bought a small jar of the dip and have since finished it (yeah, it didn't even last 24 hours).

I wouldn't have even gone to the market if it weren't for my 12:00 appointment. The meeting was at the client's Winter Park mansion. I have been in some big houses since starting this DVD business, but this was the most extravagant. It was situated on a lake; between the house and the lake was a swimming pool, which overflowed to create a small waterfall. The ceilings were about 18 feet high and the house was decorated with artifacts from the couple's many world travels. Their collection of film, videotape, and photos of family members was the largest I have ever seen. Our job is to consolidate everything into a small collection of DVDs. The job is daunting and will surely span many months. However, both myself and my wallet look forward to getting started.

I've been working on the Big Picture DVD site for a while. Tell me what you think...
http://bpdvd.com

Spent all day Saturday at the real estate investing class. It was very informative and interesting. Andy and Tim (the teachers) talked about everything from how to find a house to how much to spend rehabing it to how to finance it and how to sell it. Sunday we took a bus trip around Pine Hills (a good place to find crappy houses and looked at some real junkers. Actually most of them weren't terrible, just needed a lot of cosmetic work - new paint, carpet, cabinets, etc. The second one we went to was horrible. It smelled like ass, the roof leaked like crazy (there was a swimming pool in the kitchen) the entire kitchen had to be redone and the most depressing thing was that there were lottery tickets all over the floor of the house. Broken dreams...

Yesterday and today we have been very busy. Our new ads came out in the Lifestyle magazines and in Life in Altamonte Springs. The response so far has been good. Hopefully we will actually turn some of these calls into sales. The Lifestyle magazines also had an article about our company. It told the story of us and our company and said that Emily and I are engaged (which of course we arn't). My dad saw the magazine and freaked out because he thought it was true. Ha Ha!

I uploaded a bunch of new pictures from Chicago, Blue Springs, etc. Check um out!

Crazy guy update: My mom ran his credit - he has the best score she has ever seen.

Em and I went to the first day of a three day Real Estate investing class today. It was pretty interesting! The woman who teaches the class talked about contracts the whole time, which in itself is not a very exciting topic, but she wasn't boring in the way she spoke. We've done a couple of really rushed jobs in the last couple days. Yesterday I shot a Lifetime Tribute Video for a woman who needed it for a family reunion today (24 hour turnaround!); today we edited and burned three copies of a concert video we had shot for a family friend (and we did it in two hours!).

Tomorrow is day two of the real estate thing. We have to be there at 8:30 am. Riiiight.

P.S. The crazy guy is in the class too...

Thumb update: first my nail turned white, then it turned green, now it's turning black. Hope it doesn't fall off...

In other, less exciting news, we met with a crazy egomaniacle lunitic who was interested in our hard money loans. Well, I shouldn't be that harsh on him. He was probably just really insecure. He spent the entire meeting telling us how smart, educated, worldly, qualified and most of all people friendly he is. Needless to say, he was not someone I want to spend much time with in the future, despite his uncanny ability to deal with people. He wouldn't even answer our questions; instead he changed the subject to himself!

My stupid thumb has been hurting all day. This morning I was scraping something off the bottom of a pot with my thumbnail (pasta maybe?) and instead of it coming off the pot, it logged itself under my nail. I ran to the bathroom, where Emily was putting on makeup, and made her remove it with tweezers. I was worried it wouldn't come out, because it broke in half the first time I tried to get it. Luckily she got it, but it still hurts a lot. And now it's starting to feel hot. Hope it doesn't have to be amputated.

We met with Adam, the hard money lender, today. He taught us about his program and gave us all the steps to make loans on our own. Very informative. Now I just have to find clients and make the deals.

I spent way too much time yesterday trying to figure out how to make a scrolling text box and have my blog entries inside of it. I could either make a box with my blog inside, or make a scrolling text box, but not both. Finally at around 11 pm, I figured it out. Use layers! It sucks trying to figure out all this web coding stuff when you have absolutely no training.

We shot a live concert video for Rhythm Method about a week ago. It came out pretty well (we had the forethought to record sound seperately). Now we are talking to them about shooting a real music video. I hope they go for it, because shooting music videos is great fun. And we may even get to shoot on 16mm! Good stuff.

Went to the Mall at Mellenia today with my mom and Emily. I needed some new work clothes. The only stuff I had was the clothes I had gotten right after graduating from college for interviews. It's so great when I can actually find clothes that fit me. Kenneth Cole seems to be the only store that works. I got three shirts and three pairs of pants. Now I'll be set for at least another year.

I've been working on music a lot more lately and tightening up the songs for my next CD. I already have over an hour and a half of music, but I keep taking out the songs that arn't absolutely perfect. I have maybe 35 minutes of music that I really like. At this rate I will never finish. I made a really cool song yesterday by creating three drum loops, putting them into one sampler, mapped across the keyboard and overlaping on some notes. That way one loop will be sped up, while another is slowed down. Then I wired each loop to a different reverb unit. The main bass and snare sounds were created with two different synths and I put a simple monosynth over the entire mix. All the drum sounds and effects were automated and the song came out great.

As you can see, I moved my blog again. Blogger is great. They have a deal with Flickr.com and Audioblogger.com to provide free photo hosting and free audioblog hosting. You can call audioblogger and they will automatically post your message to your blog. It's amazing. Here is a nice clip of Emily burping into my phone.

My grandparents from Baltomore have been in this weekend. Emily and I ate dinner with them and some other family members on Friday. Saturday, Grandma Mitzi, Mom, Emily and I took a cooking class with Chef John (The Helthy Chef). It was lots of fun. We want to take more. After the class, we met up with my dad and Grandpa for dinner at Bonefish. I wasn't very hungry after all the cooking. They all came over for dessert. Em and I make home-made icecream. Abe showed up around 9:30 and we hung out till 11:00.

Today my parents, grandparents, Emily, the dogs, and I went to Blue Springs State Park. We saw the manatees, which was interesting for about 5 minutes. Emily, the dogs and I hung out in the grass, while my grandparents and dad listened to the ranger speak. That was my favorite part of the day. Very relaxing.

I grilled some hotdogs for everyone durring the Superbowl. Em and I stayed till halftime, then watched the rest of the game at home between commercials in Iron Chef America.

Emily and I didn't have much to do for the business today. I made some phone calls in the morning and got a film job. We recieved 4 or 5 calls from companies who wanted us to advertise with them. I directed them to Lynda Moy, our marketing director. I also ran by her office to drop off a check.

We went to a real estate meeting at 5:30. Hung out with my mom and talked to people at the meeting and didn't stay long. Afterward, we went to the pet store to get Turtle some more food. Emily decided she needed a real Turtle, so we ran around looking for one, but didn't find any.

I made phone calls this morning to present and potential clients. In trying to find a company who converts film to DVD, I contacted a woman from Park Ave Video. At 1:00 pm I went over there to talk to her; we worked out a deal whereby we would do all of their Photo Slide-Shows and they would do our film to DVD transfers. She was extremely nice and I look forward to working with her. This afternoon, Emily and I went to Pettys and got meat, cheese, and side dishes. That place is great. I made steak on the grill with hollendaise sauce for dinner and we watched the Napoleon Dynamite DVD.

I've been making Bradotypes again. But I've been making them a new way. Last time, I created the negatives (using my secret process) then created contact prints onto photo paper in the dark room. This time, I created the negatives the same way, but scanned them instead.

Yesterday Emily and I were sitting around my parents house, when my mom got a call from some real estate investors who wanted $600,000. She didn't have the money, but her friend Adam did. An hour later Adam, the investors, my parents, Emily and I were sitting around discussing the deal. The investors wanted to buy a luxury house in Alaqua that was going up for auction. They estimated the house to be worth around $1 million. We all drove over to check out the property. The front door was locked, the back door was open, so we went in. It was ugly, but in pretty good shape. It will probably sell for more than they can afford.

Woke up at 10:20, ten minutes before the hotel breakfast ended, threw on some clothes and ran downstairs. Everyone else had already eaten, but luckily I didn't miss the omelet bar. Emily came down a while later with Rebecca, her sister who almost didn't make it because of the weather. I'm glad she made it. Spent a few hours hanging out and playing pool with Emily's cousins and uncle before the big party. The party was like a Bar Mitzvah, with Irish dancers instead of Havah Nagela. Everyone had fun. After the party, we all went back to the grandmother's house, ate, drank, played pool and played spoons.

Ate lunch at Steve's, the same place we had eaten on our first night in town. The food was bad both times. During lunch, Emily, Joey and I decided to make dinner for everyone that night. We went shopping and spent the rest of the afternoon cooking Emily and my specialty, spaghetti and meatballs. Dinner was great. We drove to the hotel in a big snowstorm, checked in and met all of Emily's sisters and cousins at the bar. Another group of people were playing country songs on the juke box and line dancing. Very entertaining.

Emily and I took the train into downtown Chicago at around 1 pm. It was an above ground, double decker train with a good view. Naturally we sat on the upper level. The city looked really beautiful as we rode into town - brick buildings, industry, and a lot of history. I hate new cities. They just don't have the same feel. I guess that's why I liked Rome so much. We took a cab from Union Station to Ann and Miguel's (Emily's aunt and uncle) hotel. From there we rented a car, picked up Ann and Miguel's friend MacArthur (I think that's his name) and drove to a park next to lake Michigan. Emily and I thought that the were just taking us to the docks, to walk in and out of stores. Instead we went on a Siberian Blizzard Death March. We walked for about 2.5 miles in snowy, windy, and freezing weather. We had dinner at a Greek restaurant called The Parthenon, after picking up Joey. The food was amazing. Better than even the Greek food we had in Greece. After dinner, Emily, Joey and I went out for coffee until 2 am.

Emily and I flew into Chicago on Sunday. We came to shoot a Lifetime Tribute Video of her grandmother and attend said grandmother's 90th birthday party. Monday we rented video lights and began shooting. She told stories for 3 hours straight. Her memory is amazing, like a camera turned on at age two and left running. She even remembers the end of WWI and running away from home to get married at age 3. We ate dinner at Giordano's, which is suppose to be the best pizza in the country. It was good, but I've had better.

Today we finished shooting the video (another 2 hours of footage) and ran errands. One of the places we went was an art supply store in downtown Downers Grove. I have a love/hate relationship with those type of stores, because I really want to be a good artist, but I'm just not. Emily's cousin Joey arrived tonight. He's great; we talked about everything from music to politics and alternative energ

We spent the weekend preparing for our big meeting with Baldwin Fairchild funeral homes. They want us to create Photo Slide-Shows for their client's memorial services. Em put together a folder with tiered sheets of paper describing our business and our service. I updated the demo DVD with the Baldwin Fairchild logo and practiced my sales pitch. The meeting is tomorrow, so hopefully it will go well.

Saturday we met Marshal and Brittany at Fuji Sushi for dinner. It was good, as usual, and I enjoyed seeing them (for the first time in a long while). Last week I rented Grand Theft Auto San Andreas (or whatever it's called). It was addictive and I spent way too much time playing it. Thankfully it was only a rental. We also rented the HBO series "Angels in America", a 6 hour program about immigrants. I fell asleep after an hour

Piggy was getting very upset about Turtle sitting on my lap this morning. She laid on the floor barking and howling for a few minutes. I got out my camera and she got even more upset.

Em and I spent most of the day scanning photos for our new ads, which are being created by Grandesign. At around 5pm we went to Home Depot and picked up some vegetable and herb plants - tomato, green pepper, broccoli, basil, sage, camomile, and some other stuff which I can't remember at the moment. We came home and planted it in a small plot in the back yard. Piggy ripped up and ate one of the broccoli plants right after we finished.

Emily, Turtle, Piggy and I spent the holidays in Dallas with Emily's dad, step mom and sisters. They are all very good cooks, so we sat around eating the entire time. Well almost the entire time. Between meals we managed to go ice skating, visit the Fossil office where Emily's sister works, check out Emily's dad's new boat and see The Aviator (which was excellent). Turtle and Piggy were annoying the crap out of us by chasing the cats around and getting into trouble.

I spent new years at Danny Berger's party and January first at De Leon Springs State park. We ate pancakes at the Sugar Mill and debated the existence of Woolly Mammoths in Florida (there weren't any, but there were giant sloths).

Yesterday I went to the British Pub on 436 with Abe and Jamie. We met up with all the people I use to hang out with in high school. It was really cool to see all of them. I hadn't seen most of them in years. Not too much has changed. Most of them are still in school, working, etc. Doing the same stuff as always. I was glad to see everyone and hear about what they've been up to...

Spent most of the day today putting up a fence in the backyard with Emily and John Sheridan. It was nice to do some manual labor and have something to show for our work. The fence cane out really well. Now the yard actually feels like our own. We have some privacy and a place for the dogs to play. It even feels bigger. And one of our neighbors gave us some patio furniture that she was going to throw out. No more sitting on the ground.

It's been a busy week. Lots of dubs, lots of scans and lots of calls to make. I played traveling salesman again today. Went to every office park and doctor's office I could find. Probably handed out 250 or 300 flyers. Now we're almost out of flyers. This morning we had a meeting with Grandesign to see our new business identity. It looked really good, definitely captured the essence of our business. Tonight we had our first meeting to try and sell a Lifetime Tribute Video to someone we didn't already know. It went OK, but it was a little awkward. Neither Emily or I are very good at small talk and we didn't know our product well enough to really sell it, so we stumbled through the sales pitch. Oh well, we'll get better with time.

It's my birthday again. It always seems to happen around this time every year. It didn't really feel like a birthday though. Usually I feel like it's a special day, but not this year. It was probably because I was so busy all day, which is good of course. Suddenly the business has really picked up. We made our weekly goal and more for the first time last week. Today we are already well on our way to another good week. Emily and I have been working all day, every day to get these orders done. It doesn't feel like work though. Working for myself doesn't really seem like working at all. It's great. I just feel very free.

I played traveling salesman today, getting dressed up in a shirt and tie, driving around to various doctor's offices and law offices to pass out flyers. I don't mind doing it. I even got some business out of the trip. Doing a pickup on Wednesday. Tomorrow I will be making phone calls all day. I have been excited about starting yoga classes. It is something I never thought I would do, but suddenly I am very interested. I really need to just get out of the house sometimes and exercise. Too much sitting in front of the computer lately.

We just finished moving into the new apartment. It is absolutely perfect. Not to small and not a piece of crap like our other apartments. We have all of the amenities we need without having to pay too much in rent ($739) and without living in someone's basement. What's even better is that we don't have anyone above or below us. It's not a typical apartment building. More like a duplex. We even have our own little back yard. I love it.

Spent all day yesterday traveling - Woke up at 7am, ate at the lodge, drove back to Las Vegas, ate at the Rio (the food was pretty bad), waited around at the airport, caught a flight to Dallas and finally back to Orlando sometime after midnight. On the plane, dad, Emily and I wrote an article about Big Picture DVD for the Heritage and for Lake Mary Life Magazine. Mom revised and rewrote the article. It came out pretty well. Today the woman who was suppose to interview us from Lake Mary Life magazine canceled again.

Emily and I picked up the dogs first thing in the morning and ran errands for the rest of the day. I got a haircut for the first time in months. I hate getting haircuts. Now we're packing and cleaning to prepare for tomorrow's move.

Slept like crap last night, because of the obvious. Got woken up by my parents banging pots and pans together. It put me in a bad mood for hours. At 9am Emily, Lindsey, Dad and I learned to ride ATVs. I never imagined that such a redneck sport could be so much fun. We went through back woods trails. Muddy and exciting. Then we rappelled off the top of the rec center building. Emily was terrified. Lindsey got her hair stuck in the belay device. After lunch we hiked around Zion National Park, took pictures and climbed the rocks. Then more ATV riding. This time on a more advanced trail. Dinner was the typical ranch food. I didn't like it very much, but everyone else did. When we got back to the cabin, the snow storm started and lightning knocked out the power. We fumbled around in the dark for a while, before the guy who runs the place brought us some lanterns

Checked out of the hotel around 10am. Ate breakfast at some random bagel place with really good food. After breakfast, we went to Bank of America and saw an unoccupied car rolling through the parking lot backwards. I ran out and stopped it. Someone went inside to find the owner. An old Asian woman came out, thanked me profusely and told me that her head was spinning because her daughter died yesterday.

We drove 4 hours to Zion Ponderosa, a ranch style resort. We're staying in a cozy cabin overlooking the mountains. Emily and I are sleeping on the floor.

Slept well for the first time in months. Ate breakfast at the Paris Hotel. I had vanilla bean french toast, which was good. After breakfast we walked around the Venetian Hotel, looked at the shops and rode the gondolas. The hotel would be like the real Venice, if the city was owned by Disney. We walked to the New York Hotel, rode the roller coaster and ate at one of the delis at the hotel. Now we're back at the room relaxing before Thanksgiving dinner.

Later- We wanted to go to the Paris Hotel's buffet, but it was full when we got there. Ended up eating at some random hotel restaurant. I hate holidays. They're a pointless excuse to over indulge and buy pointless crap. Went to the Cirque du Soleil show called "O". It was fantastic. Gymnastics, water, music, crazy costumes and near death experiences. Lindsey, Emily and I went to the Broadway casino after the show. We played slots and Blackjack. Amazingly Lindsey won $20, Emily won $10 and I broke even.

Woke up at 7am. Took the dogs to the vet for boarding, it was very sad. I hate having to leave my dogs there. Hope they'll be ok. Ate donuts and coffee for breakfast. Met my parents at home drove to the airport. Breakfast made me sick, so I had to run to the bathroom when we got there. The was long and uneventful. They showed the Stepford Wives, which was surprisingly good, but I would like to see the original. Got into Las Vegas and found out that Lindsey had missed her flight. She took a second flight to Dallas and should be here around 7pm. We're staying at the Bellagio. It is freaking ridiculous. I have never seen such a large and extravagant hotel. As we drove into Vegas, I marveled at the plastic glamour of the city. It's like an alternative reality. Like being in a movie. Emily got me tickets to George Carlin for my birthday. I can't wait. He's my favorite comedian.

Later- We ate dinner at the Bellagio's buffet. I have never seen so much food in one place. Except maybe at the supermarket. And I don't think I've ever eaten as much in one sitting. It didn't seen like that much though, because we spaced out the courses. Everything was good. We met up with Lindsey at the MGM Grand, just before George Carlin took the stage. He was amazing. Most of the routine centered on his idea for a suicide TV channel. Hilarious. After the show, we walked down the strip and marveled at the campy, consumerist trash that is the strip. I was amazed and horrified. I can see how this place can get real old real fast, but for some reason I never want to leave. Everyone tries to look and act like they have money. But the casinos are the only ones who really do.

I have moved ten times in the last five years. I'm sick of it. Hopefully I will stay in the new apartment for a while. Em and I have started packing re-packing our stuff to prepare for the move. We brought everything except our clothes and business stuff downstairs and started taping up the boxes. Luckily most of our stuff is still in boxes, so we won't have too much to pack.

Oh, and we got Franklin Covey planners. Holy crap! I am addicted. I don't know how I survived without it. My hands were covered with notes, my pockets were full of little scraps of paper and I forgot every appointment I ever made. Now I have a nice little book that tells me everything I need to know and gives me plenty of room to write any notes. Never again will I have to rely on my defective memory. I have purchased three other planners in the last five years, but I never used them. Or I used it for a few weeks then stopped. This one is an hundred times better than any of the others because it actually give me room to write. It has a page a day, complete with room for a to-do list, appointment schedule and a whole page of notes.

I spent most of the day buying stuff for the new apartment. Em and I got a new mattress. A good one this time. Our last one was a piece of crap foam mattress that we got at Ikea. It gave us permanent back problems. We went to Appliance Direct for a washer/dryer. It was exciting because we have never bought appliances before. We ended up getting some high quality brand name units with slight dents, for a very good price. I just hope they work.

In the early evening, we went to the Salvation Army to help my dad with his new photography project. He will be visiting the Salvation Army every couple weeks for the next few months, taking pictures of the people who come to the soup kitchen and eventually holding a gallery show to raise money for the organization. Today was the first day. The people were pretty skeptical; they thought we were from America's Most Wanted or something. We were able to convince five people to sit for pictures. Hopefully we will build trust over time.

Em and I stopped by the printer this morning, before going to Orlando. They were suppose to have our business cards and order forms done last Friday, but they still weren't done. We are suppose to bring our Heritage insert to their office on Wednesday morning. The printer promised us that they could have it done and they better do it on time. We did a pickup in Casselberry before heading over to our new apartment to drop off our deposit. The people in the office at the new apartment were disorganized. They couldn't find our file, so it ended up taking much longer than it should. All I wanted to do was give them money! We were a little late meeting my grandma at my parents' house. We were there to reshoot the Lifetime Tribute Video demo (the original was poorly lit). It took us a while to set up the lights correctly, and it still didn't look as good as we wanted them to. We just have to buy better lights. By the time everything was set up and Grandma started talking, I had to go drop off the Photo Slide-Show that we had been working on. When I got home, the interview was over. I made chicken for dinner tonight. It didn't come out that well because it was kosher chicken and I didn't have enough coals for the grill (so it was crappy tasting and undercooked).

My parents had a brunch for some of the top photographers in the state (Greg and Lesa Daniel, Tim Kelly, and Peter Burg). Em and I went to play Cash Flow, but we never ended up playing. Instead we got some really good advice from the photographers; they target the same people we do and they've been doing it for much longer than we have. Basically they said that we should make our product really high class and up the price. Sounds good to me. Now we have to look into designers to help with our image.

I am obsessed with news. Most days I will spend up to three hours reading online news stories. I read major newspapers, TV news web sites, foreign news (including Algazeera and BBC), independent news, blogs and weird news sites. It is really a problem. I waste way too much time reading that crap. So, I have made a decision. I will only read one news source, the New York Times. By limiting myself to one source, hopefully, I will limit the amount of time I spend reading this crap.

Our 1/4 page ads finally came out in the big glossy magazines. Already we have gotten more calls from them, then from all of the smaller ads combined. Either our small ads were too small to read or the nice magazines are better at attracting serious customers.

A couple days ago, Em and I conducted a video interview of Grandma Lil. She gave a nice interview, full of interesting stories. Yesterday we spent the entire day editing a rough cut. It looks very good and my parents were impressed. My sister was in for the weekend. She slept over here last night, but got in too late to hang out.

Today, Em and I conducted another video interview for Marc Schwartz's grandmother. This interview was much more difficult; her family members were seated far apart while asking the questions. It was almost impossible to mic them all at once. The grandmother couldn't remember much about her history (she is 98 years old), but she was in good spirits, so it didn't really matter. Editing will be a bitch. I have no idea how we will cut together a coherent video. We'll just have to do our best...

I finished writing the short story I was working on (it wasn't suppose to be a short story, but it just turned out that way). I have been working on typing it into my word processor, but progress has been slow. Copying and editing the text just doesn't hold my interest. Next time I will just type the damn thing to begin with. It is 30 pages hand written. So far, I have typed maybe 15. Hopefully it will be done soon and maybe I will post it. But don't hold your breath

Congratulations to George Bush for winning the election (he even got the popular vote this time, way to go buddy!). The real loser this time is not John Kerry, it is the American people. My prediction is that the deficit will grow larger, more Americans will die overseas, and we will soon be barred from leaving the country because no one will want the dirty infidels stepping on their holy soil. I digress, we are suppose to respect the democratic process and put our full support behind the President (even if he was elected by a bunch of war loving rednecks, who voted for him based on biblical morality and the guise of patriotism). Sorry, I got off topic again. Maybe I should stop writing about politics for a little while.

Emily and I have been busy redesigning our business card sized ads. We realized that the text was too small, so we had to change the layout (I should say, SHE had to change the layout around - I don't deal with design issues). Our quarter page ads finally came out in the nice glossy magazines. They look really good and will hopefully attract some new customers. Yesterday, we shot a Lifetime Tribute Video of my grandma to use as a demo. The interview came out very well. Now we're working on editing it.

Lindsey is coming down this weekend. She'll probably come to the beach this weekend. Should be lots of fun! Oh, and yesterday Emily and I signed a lease on our new apartment! We have been looking for months, and finally found the right one. It is a villa style apartment (like a one story town house), no neighbors above or below us, a nice little fenced in back yard, a very large bedroom and a perfect space for our business. Plus, the rent is cheap and it has everything we were looking for. I can't wait to move in!

Whoever wins the election, I hope we don't have four more years of lies, deceit, unjustified wars, corruption, expanding government and inflated budget deficit.